July 25, 2024 • 52 mins
Fiesta Premio Esmeralda, the highly popular Hispanic summer festival, highlights Saturday and Sunday at Emerald Downs! Lots of fans expected and the dancing horses kick things off on track at 12:30 each day. “Breakfast At the Wire,” morning workout show starts its three Saturday run this week – 8-10 am on Track Level, hosted by Dean Mazzuca. This ‘cast recaps last weekend’s exciting stakes activity, including a dead-heat in the Governor’s between Arma d’Oro and Slew’s Tiz Whiz. Tom Wenzel, trainer of Slew’s Tiz Whiz, joins Joe and Vince and recaps the action, which saw a Wenzel victory in the other stake with Aloha Breeze. Wenzel and Blaine Wright each have three stakes wins at the meeting and Wenzel is at 59 for his Emerald Downs career, one ahead of Wright. They trail all-time leader Doris Harwood at 67.
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(00:00):
Come in macOS. It doesn't matterif you love craps, blackjack machines,
or dining on the finest Asian,American and Salish cuisines. It doesn't matter
what you do or where you're comingfrom Mucos. What you do is all
at Muckleshoe, an easy drive fromwherever you are, all roads lead to
(00:25):
Muckleshoe. Mucosuit Armadeo is still rightthere now, a haunting presence, and
(00:54):
they're sitting down for the drive,and armad'orro is rising to the occasion.
Here Armadeo gets to the front.Naman bites back, sluiced ki Wiz flying
at the rail. Those two tothe wire, Slus his Whiz Armadeo hit
the line together a rare dead heatand especially rare dead heat and a stakes
(01:17):
race excitement. At Emerald Downs lastSunday, the Governor's stakes slosed his Wiz
up the rail to catch armad Rororight on the line, and the trainer
of his whiz, Tom Winsle joinus on horse racing Northwest Vince. For
that reason and quite a few others, he's really had a lot of great
(01:41):
years, especially recently at Emerald Downs, Tom Weinzele yep, Tom right every
year right up among the leaders innot only wins but also in the important
stakes category. So he's got anotherstrong contender looking for his third mile win
in twenty twenty four. Yeah,Tom Winsle won it in twenty twenty two
with sles, his whiz, hewon in two thousand and seven with the
(02:04):
great Face, and he's got SlestiWiz coming into the race in peak form.
And Justin Evans no Steaks wins lastyear despite being our leading trainer,
but he's cut several contenders this yearand two Steaks wins already. Justin and
Kevin Krieger seven for thirteen last week. That's all seven wins Justin. And
(02:27):
in fact, Justin and Kevin havecombined for multiple wins the last four racing
days with three twos and then athree last Sunday, So nine wins in
the last four racing days combined.Yeah, Justin with Arma de Oro looking
really sharp, in fact, lookedlike he kind of had that race one
until his Whiz with another one ofhis remarkable rallies, gets the dead heat.
(02:51):
Yeah, that was just a superexciting race. We'll talk about that
with Tom Winzel On today's horse racingNorthwest armade Oro was fourth in the mile
last year and of course five StarGeneral pretty much dominated that race, made
that really nice move at the threeeighth pole, and Arma Ororo kind of
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came in under the radar, butstill fourth in the race last year.
It ran really well and has thefastest mile at the current meet, win
thirty four point four. Those ofyou followed Buyers at All got a eighty
nine in that race, which ispretty close to what you kind of need
to win the long Acres mile aroundhere. So he's a contender, and
I'm sure you know they're looking atthat race and seems to me he's got
(03:38):
a little more speed nowadays too,not tremendous speed, but he was able
to be in a good position inthe Governors Yes and the favorite in the
race. There were three horses fiveto two in the Governor's. Nieman was
actually the five to two betting favorite, slightly over second favorites loosed his with
slightly over a third favorite Arma deOro and of course Neeman also from Justin
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Evans stable Demon winner of the Budweiserand a good chance. He's looking strongly
at the mile with that son ofMunnings and uh yeah, and movement on
the mile, well, the governorstells a lot of story here at Emerald
Downs and outside of Washington. Youknow, we do know that five star
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general's headed here. There's you know, there's there's talk. But nominations will
close the week before what August fourth, Yeah, it used to be two
weeks in advance, Now it's oneweek in advance. I do know mile
history shows if you're a local horseto win the race, it sure shows
that you got to have a prettygood campaign going at Emerald Downs. At
least over the last ten to fifteenyears, we haven't had too many horses
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that have been running here really wakeup in the mile. It's been the
horses that have performed well that runin that race. And that makes sense
because you've got to be a fit, sharp horse to run a mile.
Okay, Mile Day Sunday, Augusteleventh, will have of an all Steaks
pick four with the Washington, WashingtonOaks, Muckleshoot, Derby, Emerald Distaff
and the mile, and we havea railbird rally that morning. We have
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well, let's start with this week. Breakfast at the Wire begins it's three
week run. This Saturday, thetwenty seventh of July, eight to ten
am right there on track level,right off the track Apron. You won't
be able to miss it. Eightto ten am. It's a free show.
Come on out. Justin Evans andKevin Krieger are going to be a
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couple of guests of Dean Mazuka.So eight to ten am. Training on
the track going on and breakfast optionsthere Breakfast at the Wire. The first
of three consecutive Saturdays this Saturday,July twenty seventh, and it's Premio Esmarelda
weekend as well. Saturday and Sunday. We're going to have some big crowds.
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The horse shows start at twelve thirtyand the horse shows on the track
are really spectacular. It's a greatfamily event with the dancing horses. And
there's going to be music and otherevents to honor and recognize the contributions of
the Hispanic community in Washington racing.And we're going to first race each day
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is going to be just a littlebit later one forty five. First race
Saturday and Sunday Premio Esmerelda Weekend hereat Emerald Downs. Of course, the
Corgi Sunday was a couple of weeksago, and the Corgi Show will be
on ESPN two on Friday August secondat ten thirty pm. So the Emerald
(06:43):
Downs Corgi Day events on ESPN twoFriday August second, ten thirty pm.
Last week, Vince, the HollywoodHarbor Sprint Series started, and shoot,
it was drawn into two divisions,a lot of interests and a lot of
claims as well. Ye run Snappywinning the first division as the favorite and
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then Mister Fireball slightly faster time inthe second division, so we both those
winners were claimed. Yeah, aswe're nine total horses out of the two
races, which kind of figured goingin as it isn't eight thousand dollars claiming
series except for the final leg whichwill be run under starter allowance conditions.
(07:30):
And in fact John Coonan who ownsMister Fireball or did own him, he
was claimed and also the breeders ourowner of the week. So I can
quickly go through those last week,Actually we didn't have a show last week,
so I will quickly run down thewinners from the previous week July twelfth
through fourteenth. That was Silvio amidorhe got a stakes win on tougher than
the rest. A lot of sweepsby trainers around here in stakes in July
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twelfth through fourteen, blain Wright gettingArctic breeze home and the day before tougher
than the rest of the Irish day. He was a Trainer of the week.
Billy Speed Racing Stable had back toback wins on Saturday and Sunday,
including a horse you picked at fortyto one named forty Nugget. That's William
Greenstein out of Oregon. Congratulations tohim. The Washington Bread was mister Midas,
who's back in action this weekend.That's Todd Nicholas, Shelley Nicholas.
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They bred that horse. Good jobthere. And the groom was Mrio Bonderas.
He worked for Vince Gibson and he'sin charge of a horse called Moonlight
and the Lion who was really improveda lot this year. And one of
the owners there is Joan Hutcheson,our former clocker here at Emerald Down,
So congratulations to that gang. Lastweek's winners at jockey Carlos Montalvo. We
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mentioned Kevin Kraeger and Justin Evans.You know they could have easily been picked.
But Carlos, you know, threewinners and a steaks win on a
Loha Breeze is the jockey of theweek. Tom Wenzel sweeps both stakes.
He's the trainer of the week.We mentioned John coonan owner and breeder of
Mister Fireball. He had a nicepayday with that horse. And then the
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wa bread got to go with Slusto his Whiz bred by the late Carl
Craig. In the groom of theweek, Christina Strickland. She works for
Justin Evans. Some of the horsesshe grooms surprisingly perfect. Who's been really
great at the meet, god Sendand the two year old Philly one thousand
miles. Wow, yeah, onethousand, one thousand miles part of our
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training day video this particular Thursday,July twenty fifth. And speaking of steaks,
you know, Carlos and Jose Zaninotied for most steaks wins last year
at the meeting with four each,and they're both doing pretty well again.
Vince Carlos has two steaks wins,so does Silvio Amador and Carlo Lopez.
(09:43):
Carlos also has a couple of thirds. How about Jose Zanino, He got
his first Steaks win of the meetwith Loosed his whis. But he's been
in the money five out of sixand he's really turned into a pretty dependable
big race rider around here. Hehas actually a pretty slow year for Jose,
Yeah, and all that could turnaround with a win in the mile
and Yeah, Jose has really madequite a combination with Slews Tis Whiz and
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not just that he's had come frombehind her. He used to ride Hollywood
Harbor and Obie Harbor and a coupleof the fastest horses around here. So
quite a career for Jose. Yeah, it's a great guy and it was
really an outstanding ride on Sunday.I mean, I guess his main decision
came about almost mid turn after thethree eighth pole. The horse was starting
to move. Actually, Tom Winzelis going to join us, and you'll
(10:31):
probably talk about the race, butthe rail did kind of open up for
him on the turn, so hestayed there and that worked out well.
If he didn't stay there, there'sno way he gets any part of the
win. And it was a groundsaving trip. And it's easy to tell
a guy to save ground, butyou know, you're you know, a
horse like Sleu's his Whiz. You'revulnerable to traffic, you know, around
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the turn, but it opened upnicely and it was a great decision by
Jose and boy Armadora will talk aboutit. He looked home free, but
it took a remarkable rally Byles HisWhiz to get the dead heat fifth Emerald
Down Stakes victory for slews Ti Whiz. He's tied with Blazing Bella Blue among
active horses with those five steaks,wins and more. On the scene,
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Charlie Essex spoke with him. Hescratched Blazing Bella Blue out of the Washington
State Legislators stakes. He said,you know, just she wasn't just absolutely
one hundred percent, nothing really toonegative to report, but I just she's
done so much, and you know, she's a six year old mayor now,
so he just excited not to runher in that particular race. Okay,
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Well, let's see what else we'vegot going on here. The overall
claims at the meet, I don'tknow if you have figures, you keep
track of a lot of that stuff. And by the way, the news
and notes are updated, which Igo to every week for a lot of
great information. So there's that,but the claims, Yeah, we got
one hundred and seventy seven of themthrough about thirty one days, so we're
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on a record pace over one pointthree million and claims money. And of
course, you know you analyze whythat is, well, a lot of
it is we just you know,the not as much breeding going on locally
as in the past, and peopleare looking for horses and and you can
kind of you know, if youclaim a five thousand dollars horse or a
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twenty five hundred dollars horse, youcan turn around and make some money back
pretty fast with a win. Soit's uh, there's a lot of reasons
for it. And you know,you can bring in a guy like Justin
Evans the last couple of years,and he's got a lot of horses people
want to claim, and he doesa lot of claiming himself. So blain
right. We mentioned a few weeksago, you know, early in the
meat he had eleven horses claimed inlike the first fifteen days. And and
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those guys are are not they're smarthorsemen. They know they're when they enter
a horse, their chances are prettygood they're going to lose one. So
the claiming is hot and heavy atat Emerald Downs, and Blaine's having an
outstanding season and he's still what elevenwins behind. I think it is just
thirty four to twenty three. ButBlane's clicking at thirty percent. You can't
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do much better than that, soyou know, he's just not starting as
many and both guys are you know, you got to give them a's for
how they're doing at the meet,okay, and other things happening the racing
club, any update from them.We got one in on Sunday, Warns
Candy Man's and a five claimer goinga mile and like a real evenly matched
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field there. I think this ispretty good racing this weekend, don't you
South Yasco. There's you know,there's some three to one and seven to
two morning line horses, and there'sthere's like three or four races where top
to bottom, no one would surpriseyou if they won. Where the you
know, there's a couple of raceswhere there's not going to be no horse
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going off at double digits, soit's it's going to be competitive. We
should also mention we got some quarterhorse racing on Sunday. The first and
second races are trials. For theJohn Deere Juvenile Challenge, which will be
run on August twenty fifth. There'sfifteen total horses and two heats. The
ten fastest out of those two moveon to the final. Twelve horses entered
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the trials for the Bank of AmericaEmerald Downs Championship Challenge, that's the forty
thousand dollars race with twelve nominated.They we do have twelve that can run,
so they all automatically. All thoseones that were entered advance to the
finals on August twenty fifth at fourhundred and forty yards, and then on
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top of that, we have aneight hundred and seventy yard race on Sunday,
mixed mixed race between quarterhorses and thoroughbreds. With capital Expense is going to
be favored in that race. Andif you look at the horses he beat
at Phoenix at eight hundred and seventyyard races this year, it's extremely impressive.
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The more research you do, themore impressive it got. And he's
eight to five. He might evengo lower. The only bugaboo with him,
and we've talked about it before,is this is not his favorite racetrack
and there is a horse like CodeCharlie in there. That's got a tremendous
amount of early lick too, butwe'll see. I mean as someone's going
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to have to run really, reallywell to beat him. There's a horse
Alabama Hills who people have seen runaround here the last couple of years.
He's never run eight seventy, buthe's probably the best quarter horse in the
race. So fun matchup there tooin the eight hundred and seventy yard race.
Yeah, Code Charlie and Capital Expensein eight seventy. I think that's
got a nickname something like around theHook or so around the hook, yeah,
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because in most quarter horse races youdo not race around the turn,
so maybe that's where that is derivativeof. But we will see that.
So the first three races on Sunday, and it is Festa Premium Morale today,
so it's kind of appropriate because ifyou follow couarter horse racing in the
United States, the tremendous Hispanic influencein those events around the country, so
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that will be a little different,but it's a change of pace is never
a bad thing. Yeah, yeah, Well, our fans are used to
quarter horse action every year. Okay, Well, stakes races around the country,
del Mar and Saratoga in action.Of course, Saratoga Race is Wednesday
through Sunday. Del Mar is Thursdaythrough Sunday, and they each track has
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a stakes race every day this week, and I think that's pretty common for
many weeks. So Thursday through Sundayfor del Mar and Saratoga five days a
week, and of course our simulcastarea up on the fifth floor is opened
seven days a week. See anythingelse. Jockey Race. Alex Cruz has
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maintained a pretty good lead, butso many of these other guys are having
good seasons. You know, CarloLopez, We know he's got a lot
of second place finishes, but nowhe's emerged with two stakes wins fairly recently.
Luis Reyes is riding well, andyou mentioned the stats on Kevin Krieger.
Boy, could he win the titlethis year now that he's riding for
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Justin Evans. I don't think so, because he's got you know, we
got twenty four days left and he'sfourteen behind. It's possible, you know.
But the thing with Alex is he'sso steady, yeah that you know,
even when he has kind of anoff week, he still gets two
or three wins and he's such acompetitor that I would be surprised. But
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you know, a couple more weekslike that and you know, maybe he
gets gets into the fray. ButAlex is a pretty pretty strong bet to
make it five in a row.I would agree with that. It would
be a big upset at this point. As driven as Alex Cruz is,
and just again he is, thisis his fit season here and the four
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previous he has won the title.Tremendous feet for young Alex Cruz looking to
add another Emerald Downs Jockey title tohis resume. Yeah, we'll talk a
little bit about our feature races inthe selection segment segment three, but we'll
take a short break and we'll comeback with trainer Tom Wenzel here on horse
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racing Northwest Muchos. It doesn't matterif you love craps, blackjack machines or
dining on the finest Asian, Americanand Salish cuisines. It doesn't matter what
you do or where you're coming fromus. What you do is all at
Muckleshoe, an easy drive from whereveryou are, all roads lead to Muckleshoe.
(18:55):
Mucosuit, the Loja Breeze maintains theadvantage in deep stretch and she has
opened up a half dozen now AlohaBreeze racing past the final sixteenth have left
the rest in the dust. It'sa Looja Breeze. A low Haw Breeze
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was spectacular on Sunday at Emerald Downs, winning the Washington State Legislator's Stakes by
a stakes record six and three quarterslengths. And that was her fourth Emerald
Down Stakes victory. And Vince,she's won three steaks. She's won a
steak each year of racing. Nowat six and a half furlongs, she
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can motor fast on those longer sprints. Yeah, she went one point fifteen
and those who follow the buyers,she got a career high seventy seven.
You mentioned the sixty three quarter lengths, well, the record she broke with
Kiki Soil Blue, also trained byTom, also owned by the tadaros So.
Tom has had a lot of goodfortune both the governors and the Washington
State Legislators. In fact, he'swon each race the last three years running.
(20:04):
Yeah, tremendous And that's our guestsright now in segment two of Horse
Racing Northwest, Welcome Tom wins aHi Tom, welcome to be here,
thanks for being here, and heswept both stakes last weekend Vince, and
after last year winning seven of seventeenstarts in stakes races, he is in
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second place all time at Emerald Downs, fifty nine for Tom, fifty eight
for Blaine Wright. And I gotto think both those guys will be bearing
down on Doris Harwood's sixty seven herein the next couple of years. And
of course the real exciting race Sundayonly the third dead heat and the stakes
race in Emerald Downs history. Assleused his whiz flying up the rail catches
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Arma to Oro, the photo can'tsplit him. Tom, Where did you
watch the race and what was yourinitial thought? Did you think you got
up? I guess getting up.I actually watched the slow ma I think
it was twice they they showed it, kind of leading up to them posting
the dead heat, and I continueone thing I've watched. I watched a
lot of race this year. Andif I think it's a dead heat on
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the slow moll, the outside horsealways has a little bit of an advantage,
and so I I thought my noseon the slow mall was in front
with slow, and so I hadkind of felt we didn't lose it for
sure, but I thought I eitherwon it or it was a dead heat.
That's because it was my opinion.It's hard to call a dead heat,
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it is and it was a perfectbob I thought too. For his
w Yeah, down right on thewire and another great ride by Jose Zannino.
You run into a razor sharp urmaoral. But wow, to keep
a horse like that going and winningthree straight years. Now you're set up
for another run at the Long Acresmile. I gotta think that's the that's
the hope you always. Luckily wegot a early prep in the mud early
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this year and then uh run secondin the first and he was sharpening the
Governor's again, So I h Ido Uh. I'm very happy with the
where the horse is leading into themile of this this year. Tom's always
talked about what a hard trying horsehe is, loosed his whiz and yeah,
you can just see that, youknow his his drive, talk about
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Jose riding him, And what yourthoughts were is the race unfolded there?
Well, the I thought the horsewas was moving pretty good already at the
three ags you could see him pickingup ground and the speed. Papa was
loose this time for a little while, and the other other horses were chasing
him. So you know sometimes whenPapa gets loose, he does carry on
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pretty good. Uh. But theother horses got to him, and I
could see my horse coming. Iknew we had a shot, and I
never This is the one horse younever want to give up. I mean,
if it looks a little hopeless atthe eighth ball, if he's if
he's quite a few back, hecan make up address. So he's just
a fun horse. I knowunt therun speed, he's try as I ever
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had. Yeah, I know Slew'screw racing. It bears repeating that he
came on the scene was late inthe twenty twenty one meet, and you
look at that race he ran inin a maiden fifteen. He barely picks
up his feet and you would havenever dreamed that that horse would be a
long acre's mile prospect. And youknow, he's the kind of horse Joe
and I always talk about a secondtime starter that got a little experienced the
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year before, and then he justin the first race in twenty twenty two,
he just tipped his hand and thatwould have been one excuse me twenty
one. You had to just knowthat this was a pretty good horse at
that point. We were so youknow, as a two year old,
he was very awkward and immature andworked you know, kind of average.
The light bulb definitely was not onwhen he was a young horse. And
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I actually let him over there atthe end of the meet just very well
prepared. We were just you know, he was okay enough to start in
a he run really poorly. Imean we might have got beat twenty langs
rom Or that day the first timeI run him, and I didn't think
he'd run that bad that day,but he did, and so they're bringing
him back. Heking this horse runand he worked, you know, leading
(24:12):
in a three year old year.He worked pretty good leading up to the
race, not lights out, butthe last time I worked him out of
the gate before we ran him,he finished pretty well. And so he
had some pretty middle of the roadworkouts that day leading up to that first
race. So he went off asa little bit of a price. And
I have to admit I was Ithink he made the lead that day,
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yeah, And I was kind ofI was surprised even myself that he made
the lead because I you know,I knew he could finish, but the
fact that he it was fifteen,so you know, he caught a group.
Maybe there wasn't a lot of speedthat day, but that was the
surprise. Not that he ran well, but the front end did surprise me
that day when he broke his maiden, Yeah it and the career just kept
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going up. He was second inthe Muckleshoot Derby that year and won a
couple nice other races. And thatwas that was kind of the race when
he ran a I think it wasthird, wasn't it? Was it?
Third? Yeah? Okay, heran a real good closing third into a
pace that wasn't that blistering or somethingthat day? And I and and that
was it might have been his firstroute too. I think maybe I got
(25:15):
another one before that, But thatwas the race I said, this horse
is going to be you know thefact that he can go long and close
like that, uh yeah, topexecutive Coastal kid and loosed his with a
roaring third. And yeah, andin the wrestling group was quite a ways
back from him from slew that day. So that was the the race that
kind of hit this, you know, this horse is pretty good. Yeah,
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and uh, you know, JoseZannino has just had a couple of
really fine rides on him. Thingsworked out on Sunday, you know,
off the pace on the inside andthen opened up for him. But uh,
Jose's prowess and steaks is working well. I mean, he's riding your
horses a lot, which is atribute to you as well. But that's
(25:59):
quite a combination. And yeah,slew'st his whiz in really lofty company.
When you win a stake race threeyears in a row, which he has
done in the Governor's Andy and Boldof course won four. He won three
in a row ninety nine to twothousand and one, then he won again
as an eight year old and three. But nonetheless, he's he's moving right
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up there as one of the tophorses in Emerald Down's history. He really
is. And one of the thingsthat really proves his greatness to me is
the style he does it. Youknow, kind of like a striker PhD
and having to pass horses and you'revulnerable to paces and all these things that
can you know, topple a horse, but he he just shows up every
(26:44):
time with that just really exciting stretchrun and would you think at the wire,
I honestly didn't have one opinion theother once I saw the slow mo,
like Tom said, I was,I wrote down. I told Ed
Cornerera does the charts, I gothis list. His wis did get the
perfect bob. Yeah, so Iwas kind of surprised with the dead heat
then, but you know, hesaw the photo. It either way,
(27:04):
they both ran great, and Ithought it was a just a just outcome.
Oh yeah, I thought, uh, I thought armored or you know,
he's winning, he's winning, he'swinning, oh you know, and
then whoa, yeah, I thoughthe didn't get beat armor to or.
But wait a minute, you know. And then as Tom said, you
(27:26):
know, whatever, the illusion isthat the outside horse seems like it's worth
a few inches of an advantage forsome reason on the actual on the camera
and camera. Yeah that's but yeah, it is to get back to that,
he's just such an exciting horse.And I know, Tom, you
want another shot at five star General. You beat him in twenty twenty two,
and last year things just your horseran a good race, of course,
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and the figures were fine, butit just never really looked like his
day that day when I watched therace, you know, yeah, he
struggled with the racetrack that day alittle bit himself. It was a little
bit of a deeper racetrack that dayfor some you know reason then. And
I think horse like five Star General, those horses are are used to running
(28:11):
on a deeper racetrack almost back inthe Midwest a lot. And I think
he relished it and run a bigrace. And you know, Granting,
those guys had him sharp and lookslike they got him sharp again this year
as well. And so he's he'sgoing to be a very very tough opponent.
Yeah, he's he's going good.I think, didn't he just get
tie his career high buyer speed figureout a ninety seven? Yeah, but
(28:37):
I'm looking forward to that showdown becausethey've each got a first and a third
the last two years. And what'sneat and racing You don't see that too
often anymore where, you know,no handicap horses stay around and keep firing
bullets like these two guys are doing. It's just it's pretty neat and pretty
special. And you know, wetalk about a lot, but Carl Craig
bred this horse and we all knowhow fun it would have been for to
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be in a part of this wholedeal. Oh yeah, he was.
I mean if he was, ifhe was down here on earth, he
would be out of his uh,out of his mind as happy. He'd
still be talking at the banquet rightnow about that mile. He could get
happy, which is great about him. Uh slew uh tell us how he
comes out of his races generally?Does he need? I mean, he's
(29:22):
such a hard trier, but mostof the time it's always pretty good.
And you know this one especially,you look like you come out of it
as good. He was kind ofbouncing around today, so he's I will
send him back to jog tomorrow already. And sometimes it depends on how many
days off all give hours after arace, just kind of how they're doing.
But he's going to job tomorrow,so he looks like he come out
(29:44):
in good shape. And keep myfingers crossed, and three weeks down the
road, we'll try it again.What about the Philly Aloha breeze? You
did try to stretch her out lastyear in the oaks? Would you look
at the distaff with her? We'llconsider it. I mean, we're this
Philly is probably a sprinter, tobe real honest about it. She's built
like that. We did try itlast year. We had some circumstances in
(30:07):
that day that we run her thatdidn't work out for her. But she
was pushed into some really fast fractionslast year. I mean for the race,
the way the race truck was thatday, as far as depth,
and you know, it wasn't alot of things weren't weren't in her wheelhouse
that day. I mean, she'sprobably built for realistically, seven furlogs are
(30:29):
under but if she's the best horse, sometimes sometimes you can stretch one out.
Yeah, I mean you had tobe pretty confident with her. I
mean, not knowing her training leadingup. I'm assuming everything was good because
you ran her, but then nothaving a super fast horse like Miss Dynamic
(30:52):
in there and knowing your your mayoragecapabilities to go to the front, you
had to be confident with her.Well. We were obviously the speed.
She was the speed of the race, and we knew she would be.
You probably have a couple of thema couple of lengths on the group group
and that for you know, atrue speed horse is very helpful, even
if they're running fast and six anda half is one of those distance where
(31:15):
not everybody's gunning for their life rightout of the gate, because it's almost
like a long sprint here. Andif you watch Carlos in the race,
he just kind of let her bebroke well, but he didn't absolutely gun
her. He kind of let hernaturally run into the pace. And he
did the same thing in the lastyear six and a half, which if
(31:36):
you can kind of do something likethat without having to be pushed and get
away with some modest fractions, especiallythe first quarter, it you know,
usually if you got a good horse, they'll stick around with that type of
scenario. And I, you know, did I think she'd do what she
did and run them totally off theirfeet? I mean I was hoping,
(31:59):
but I uh, you know,she's just a talented speed horse and she
gets a comfortable lead. She's she'svery dangerous and talented. And by the
way, that's George Todarow. That'shis fourteenth stakes winning down. He's getting
up there in total stakes wins.And George and Jane were out to watch
(32:20):
their nice horse run. Yeah,they were. That's great. When when
when they come out and George,uh, it's always fun. We can
win a big race when George ishere because he really enjoys it. Well,
he just has been tremendous for horseracing. I mean all those years
with Jerry Hollendorffer and and uh alwayssupported us when he could, you know,
(32:42):
yeah, sent you some horses overthe years and a lot of a
lot of different years. But yeah, really easy to root for for that
guy too. And so we've onlyhad two two year old steaks yet and
Tom has won the Gottstein record threeconsecutive years. Uh, what about your
two year olds this year? Tom, Well, we start We've started two
(33:02):
cults so far, a second anda fourth. Bode's offer on a closing
second in the first stake here thisyear, which the uh which uh Jack
Rutz horse one for plain right?Yeah, and run a good race.
So this horse was learning a littlebit, uh at five and a half
(33:25):
and he's kind of built for moredistance, that horse. So, but
there's a couple others down there inthe barn I think that are that got
in talent that I'm hoping, youknow, maybe we can get a couple
more in the Gottstein at the endof the year. Two we'll see it.
Always depends on the horses and howthey're doing. But but there's a
(33:47):
there's a few chances, so justgoing leading up to that. And you
know, Minor League only had twostarts going into the Gottstein last year.
Yeah, and I don't think's logichad too many more than that. Lloyd
had a few more because it tookhim about four races the break was made
and we had run him in acouple of maiden races. Then we tried
(34:07):
him in a stake and he hada tough go trip wise, and then
we took the blinkers back off himand he finally broke his maiden. So
I think he had five starts atleast leading to the god scene, so
he was well prepared as far asrace numbers. So, but it's always
beneficial if you can get more thanone race going in the godscene. I've
seen a number of Gottsteen horses thatwere very talented but only had one race,
(34:31):
and that's not an easy to pulloff. As for a young horse
off of just one race. Youmentioned Minor League and he had his four
race win streak snapped in the IrishDay a couple of weekends ago, kind
of a funny race there because itwas scratched down to four and then tougher
than the rest. Ran a nicerace, but he hit he looked on
(34:52):
paper to have quite a serious paceadvantage. Wondering how your horse come out
of the race there, Yeah,Minor League come out of the race decent
for for us. He uh hada little bit of trouble with him out
of the last race, but uh, he he's okay. And but he
was just one of those races whereyou know, the track, if I
(35:13):
remember right, the track was thespeed horses were having having their way that
weekend, and and they're just youknow, Minors is truly not a speed
horse. He can he can makea move in a race pretty quickly,
and he did that on the backsidethat day, but it just wasn't enough.
And then he kind of went wideand flattened out on me a little
bit. And uh, it's youknow, it's just some circumstances probably with
(35:37):
the track and the PA scenario thatday got him, got him a little
bit. But and you know,in the end we just got out run
as well. So you you youknow, it's hard to it's hard to
win them all. It's hard towin them all. Tom certainly wins his
share. Uh, and you knowit's pretty good rivalry for us media types
(35:57):
keeping track of stuff. Uh.Blaine right and Tom wins each with three
steaks wins this year and just wonaway from each other. Tom was one
went ahead career wise in that pursuitof the number one spot which they are
assaulting the last several years. Boy, and Tom's got two long acres mile
winds as well, and it's gota pretty live horse for August eleventh.
(36:21):
So yeah, just some great stufffor your barn last week. And also
your Curtis High school classmates were thereon Sunday and that was a pretty good
day for them to invite them out. It was fun. We saw quite
a few of the old classmates overthe weekend and the days leading up and
a few of them were able tocome out Sunday, so that was fun
(36:42):
they got to I was hoping wecould at least win one that day so
to get a few of them inthe winter circle. So that was fantastic.
Yeah, that was just just aheck of a horse race, especially
you know the Governor's being a deadheat and loosed his wiz, just making
his move and out running so manygood sprinters again and we know he can
go two turns and yeah, soTom, great stuff. We'll be seeing
(37:07):
more two year olds from him.He didn't name too many of them,
so we're gonna have to handicap onour own there. We'll figure it out.
We'll try and figure it out.But thanks Tom, and really good
luck the rest of the season.Thank you guys. Tom Wenzel joining us
on horse Racing Northwest. We'll takea time out and come back with our
third and final segment here on thepodcast. It doesn't matter if you love
(37:36):
craps, blackjack machines or dining onthe finest Asian, American and Salish cuisines.
It doesn't matter what you do orwhere you're coming from. What you
do is all at Muckleshoe, aneasy drive from wherever you are. All
roads lead to Muckleshoe. Horse RacingNorthwest, our third and final segment on
(38:07):
this show. Thanks once again totrainer Tom Wenzel and just a really successful
weekend for him with loosed his wiswinning his third straight Governors in dead heat
fashion and a low haw breeze backin the stakes winners circle at Emerald Downs.
Just unfortunately passing to relate from ourindustry. Bruce Samuels passed away recently
(38:34):
at the age of seventy eight.Bruce trained here in our first few seasons.
He was kind of associated with BradVarner there and you know, in
talking with John White, John dida story on Turbulator. Vince John,
I'm shocked he did a story onTurbulator and Bruce Samuels was Tom Crawford's groom,
(38:58):
one of his grooms back when Turbulatorwas a two year old in nineteen
sixty seven and the horse got reallysick and John did the research. Bruce
called called Tom Crawford right away.I guess he was sweating profusely. The
horse was Turbulator, and the vetcame and they had a number of horses
pass away from a very serious virusthat summer at playfair Well. Bruce later
(39:24):
trained Turbulator in his final season onthe track. Of course, Tom Crawford
was the trainer and owner, andTom did pass away in nineteen seventy one.
Leonard Roberts trained in seventy two andthree, and Bruce Samuel's trained Turbulator
in nineteen seventy four. He wasgood friends with Larry Pearce and Brad Taylor
(39:46):
as well, and Bruce relocated andYakamah was married there and just a real
mild mannered guy, but according tomany a really solid horsemen. So our
condolence is there to his family.Bruce Samuels passes away at age seventy eight.
(40:07):
Sport shorts My sports short is EmeraldDowns. I noticed Coastal Jazz and
Coastal Kid are in the same raceon Saturday, and I thought, shoot,
did those horses run against each other? Well, they have not often.
They're both six year old Washington breads. They're both by Coastguard, but
(40:29):
a little different routes. Coastal Kidsfirst career start was on September ninth,
twenty twenty. He did win thatrace, of course, Jeff Metz was
his trainer and the cars owned him, and Coastal Jazz was in that race
that Coastal Kid won on September ninth, twenty twenty. It was Coastal Jazz's
(40:51):
fourth career start. He finished sixthin there, so they ran there then.
It wasn't again until last summer inthe Budweiser Stakes here at Emerald Downs.
Coastal Kid was fifth behind our winnerthat was bridled up to the bar.
Yeah, and Coastal Jazz was twelfthin that race. So Coastal Kid
Coastal Jazz have run against each othertwice. They're going to do it again
(41:12):
on Saturday. In our feature race, Coastal Kid got the better of his
brother so to speak, by Coastguardsame age and Coast Guard doing well in
the sire standings. Again, Ithink he's second, Vince. You tell
he those second to harbor the goldright now, maybe it is twelve to
eleven, so that's up for grabsas we go through the second half of
(41:36):
the meat Well. By now everyoneknows the Seattle Mariners are really on the
skids. In fact, they've blowna ten game lead in record time,
I think in twenty four days,and a lot of people kind of saw
it coming when once again during thelast off season and ownership kind of limited
the amount of flexibility they were goingto have with payroll, and they're pretty
(41:59):
much wasting historical starting rotation they haveand I think at some point, you
know, maybe they need to understandthat the taxpayer is paid and built for
that stadium, not the ball club, the people, and it doesn't seem
like that has ever given a consideration, and the chice prices they charge for
food and drink and tickets and allthat. I just think the fans deserve
(42:22):
a little bit better. That's myopinion. I know a lot of people
feel the same way right now,and it's not reactionary. And you could
kind of see it coming in theoff season. Win again, they sign
these guys who have had maybe onedecent year in their career and kind of
hope for the best, and thebottom has just falling out. They can't
(42:42):
score, they can't hit. They'reon pace for records amounts of strikeouts,
the lowest batting average since nineteen ten. I'm reading and wow, and miraculously
they're still, you know, verymuch in a pennant race. So we'll
see what they do, you know, coming up here the trade deadline in
four days. But uh, Ijust think sometimes you know, you you
get what you pay for in uh, in sports and all along. You
(43:08):
know, their starting pitching has beenso good the last couple of years,
unbelievably did yeah, and then thisyear the ten game lead, Uh,
you'd think that can carry you through. Heck, we can win some of
these two to one games and threeto one and three to two games.
But the hitting has just been sobad. It's so bad. And then
a couple of years ago they didwin a lot of one run games,
(43:30):
you know, they were actually outscoredone year and and and they had finished
many games over five hundred. Soit'll be interesting to see how they finish
out. But now with Coculio Rodriguezand JP Crawford, you know, out
indefinitely. It's just it's, uh, it's kind of like there's no relief
in sight for this team. Andand uh, it'll be it'll be interesting
(43:51):
to watch. It's poor timing becausethe Seahawks training camp just opened, and
we know, let's face it,you know, uh, Seattle is pretty
big on its football between the Huskiesand the Seahawks. So we'll see what
happens down the stretch. And Ifelt obligated to do that since Bill Downs,
who was here the last couple ofyears, would always be given our
weekly update on the Mariners. Soyes he did, and I know you'd
(44:15):
speak with their text Bill now.And then he's is he still a is
he still a fan? Oh?Yeah, okay, yeah, he's singing
in there kind of been lamenting thethe last few weeks, as many Mariners
fans have been, so it wouldmake for a heck of a story if
they somehow came back and yeah,did did great down the stretch, but
(44:37):
they can't get much lower than gettingswept by the Angels. Well, not
only that, they lost three straightto him the prior week, you know
the four game series down there.They won the first game and then lost
the last three there, So it'sthey've lost eight out of nine out about
that, Yeah, I think it'sanyhow, you could go on and on
with it, but it's time forsomeone on that team to start hitting the
(44:58):
ball. Okay, Hey, there'ssome sports shorts selections. We've got Friday,
Saturday and Sunday racing coming up.The sixth race on Friday night is
well, it's a starter allowance atsix and a half furlongs with six horses
doing pretty well. I did gowith number three, meant for me,
Kevin Krigger for Justin Evans. Ididn't see the morning line yet, but
(45:22):
that horse has a little bit ofspeed and there's just so many stalkers and
closers other than the rest of thehorses, so you probably had him.
He's one of the ones for sure. Yeah, meant for me has had
four starts at the meeting. Hehasn't won. He's coming off two routes,
but he has shown speed in sprintseveral times. He has won at
(45:43):
six and a half in his career. I'm going to go with the three
horse in there. It meant forme. And if you've been on the
Evans Krigger bandwagon here lately, youare scoring at an incredible rate. I
think it's close to ten for thirteenin the last you know, so many,
but you mentioned all the multiple windows. Yeah, they're nineteen for forty
(46:05):
three for the for the meat,for the meat, which is tremendous,
that's well over forty percent. Andyou know, be honest, there is
a lot of favorites in there,but it's still and those rides Kevin are
putting up or he's got the horseof the right spot every time. So
it's really worked out well for JustinEvans and Kevin Krieger, who of course
was no stranger at Emerald Down's comingback here this year. I just noticed
(46:30):
Meant for me is nine to fiveon the morning. Okay, yeah,
makes sense, Okay, well,we've got a good feature race on Saturday.
It's a mile and seventy yards optionalclaimer, and Surprisingly Perfect is in
there. Gosh, it might turnit into a chalk eater here, because
(46:50):
I know he's got to be thefavorite in there with his three spectacular wins.
Absolutely, but yeah he is.He's like skip a Way, you
know. And the horse. Ithink he's got twenty career wins now,
and that said, he's probably incareer four. Yes, I mean another
sharp win and who knows, maybethey've come back in two weeks. In
(47:14):
the mile, he's got four winsthis year. He won at Well,
he won in December at Zea Park, then he won at Sunland in January,
and of course three wins at EmeraldDowns. And I say skip Away
because skip Away as a three yearold was a really good three year old.
I mean he was one of theones, but he usually came from
off the pace even closed. Butthen age four, he just was so
(47:36):
good they just let him go,I mean run, nobody could beat him.
He had a huge series of successat ages four and five. Surprisingly
Perfect is kind of like that rightnow. Just let him go at Emerald
Downs and he is just crushing hisfoes, so he's going to be tough
to beat. You'll probably see somelong acres mile nominees out of that eighth
(47:59):
race on Saturday. You're the CauseDirt Road, red gen Tong sentat Thunder
coming off a great win. Sakielis a claim just one at Churchill Downs
in late June for Craig Perrinboom wholikes to participate in the mile falsely Cues
coming off a good route and Elalto Ombre. So that's a really good
(48:20):
race. In fact, a coupleof those were entered last week in the
Governor's and came out of that raceto go in this race. Another interesting
race I thought on this Sunday isan allowance race for three year olds going
as Race seven were power Rised,who had that huge maiden win and then
finished second in the Auburn comes backunder allowance conditions against a pretty good feel.
(48:40):
Blaine Wright has spinning pistols and runedoffedin their Dynamics Secret who ran pretty
good on July third Whiskey Jack andthen a comebacking well imagine that, and
Nightline coming off a nice maiden score. So that's kind of an interesting twenty
five thousand dollars allowance for three yearolds with possible stakes implications down the road.
(49:01):
Now, that's Sunday seventh and theninth. On Sunday is the race
with Coastal Jazz and Coastal Kid meetingfor the third time, but executive chefs
in there Langston Road smiling goodbye andcool popagee so plenty of speed. I'm
going to give Coastal Kid the nod. He's beaten Coastal Jazz both times he's
(49:22):
run against him. This is differentsituation because Coastal Jazz is coming off a
really awesome sprint win there on thefourteenth two weeks ago. He just destroyed
that feed. That was a goodfield. He put away like nothing.
So and I thought, I'm withyou. I thought Coastal Kid ran a
(49:42):
little better than looked in the stakesrace. And this is a little dropping
class. And you know, thehorse already has a nice win at the
meet, and had a big winat Phoenix earlier in the year, and
he could have won the Gottstein Harea few years ago. But he's been
pretty good throughout his career and itwouldn't surprise me that much to see him
bounce back either. What'd you makehim three to one, seven to two
(50:04):
six hors field? Yeah, Ithink one. Let's get four to one
in a sex hors field. Ilike it. Okay, I'm gonna give
him the nod in there, allright. That brings us to trivia.
Last week or two weeks ago,we had of phillies and mayors and the
Washington Thoroughbred Hall of Fame. Who'sthe only one to race in the Long
Acres Mile? Well? C J. Knigg, who is a popular trivia
(50:29):
player. He was at Emerald Downsthe day of the ceremony when Smoggy Do
was inducted, so he he knowsher. He heard the verbiage and the
fact that she did run in theLong Acres Mile twice and one time ran
pretty well. Of course, shewon the Long Acres Derby as a three
year old over George Royal and beatthe boys over ten times in her career.
(50:53):
Smoggy Do the only Washington Thoroughbred Hallof Fame member of the male variety
who was run in the Long AcresMile. CJ got that. Andy had
a good submission of Irene's Angel,who was a mile winner. Okay,
our new question, Well, Wejust had our third dead heat and an
(51:14):
Emerald Down stakes race in track history, going back to the long Acre era.
What was the most recent dead heatin a steaks race at Longacre?
Send your answers to trivia at emeralddownsdot com thanks to our guest Tom Wenzel.
No stakes races this week, butthe following week couple of juvenile steaks
(51:37):
and I think we should mention anice birthday today. This is Thursday for
Blaine Wright, who was celebrating abit of a milestone today. So congratulations
to Blaine. You bet happy birthday, Blaine, tremendous run of success here
at Emerald Downs. Thanks for listeningto horse Racing Northwest.
Come in macOS. It doesn't matterif you love craps, blackjack machines,
or dining on the finest Asian,American and Salish cuisines. It doesn't matter
what you do or where you're comingfrom Mucos. What you do is all
at Muckleshoe, an easy drive fromwherever you are, all roads lead to
(00:25):
Muckleshoe. Mucosuit Armadeo is still rightthere now, a haunting presence, and
(00:54):
they're sitting down for the drive,and armad'orro is rising to the occasion.
Here Armadeo gets to the front.Naman bites back, sluiced ki Wiz flying
at the rail. Those two tothe wire, Slus his Whiz Armadeo hit
the line together a rare dead heatand especially rare dead heat and a stakes
(01:17):
race excitement. At Emerald Downs lastSunday, the Governor's stakes slosed his Wiz
up the rail to catch armad Rororight on the line, and the trainer
of his whiz, Tom Winsle joinus on horse racing Northwest Vince. For
that reason and quite a few others, he's really had a lot of great
(01:41):
years, especially recently at Emerald Downs, Tom Weinzele yep, Tom right every
year right up among the leaders innot only wins but also in the important
stakes category. So he's got anotherstrong contender looking for his third mile win
in twenty twenty four. Yeah,Tom Winsle won it in twenty twenty two
with sles, his whiz, hewon in two thousand and seven with the
(02:04):
great Face, and he's got SlestiWiz coming into the race in peak form.
And Justin Evans no Steaks wins lastyear despite being our leading trainer,
but he's cut several contenders this yearand two Steaks wins already. Justin and
Kevin Krieger seven for thirteen last week. That's all seven wins Justin. And
(02:27):
in fact, Justin and Kevin havecombined for multiple wins the last four racing
days with three twos and then athree last Sunday, So nine wins in
the last four racing days combined.Yeah, Justin with Arma de Oro looking
really sharp, in fact, lookedlike he kind of had that race one
until his Whiz with another one ofhis remarkable rallies, gets the dead heat.
(02:51):
Yeah, that was just a superexciting race. We'll talk about that
with Tom Winzel On today's horse racingNorthwest armade Oro was fourth in the mile
last year and of course five StarGeneral pretty much dominated that race, made
that really nice move at the threeeighth pole, and Arma Ororo kind of
(03:13):
came in under the radar, butstill fourth in the race last year.
It ran really well and has thefastest mile at the current meet, win
thirty four point four. Those ofyou followed Buyers at All got a eighty
nine in that race, which ispretty close to what you kind of need
to win the long Acres mile aroundhere. So he's a contender, and
I'm sure you know they're looking atthat race and seems to me he's got
(03:38):
a little more speed nowadays too,not tremendous speed, but he was able
to be in a good position inthe Governors Yes and the favorite in the
race. There were three horses fiveto two in the Governor's. Nieman was
actually the five to two betting favorite, slightly over second favorites loosed his with
slightly over a third favorite Arma deOro and of course Neeman also from Justin
(04:00):
Evans stable Demon winner of the Budweiserand a good chance. He's looking strongly
at the mile with that son ofMunnings and uh yeah, and movement on
the mile, well, the governorstells a lot of story here at Emerald
Downs and outside of Washington. Youknow, we do know that five star
(04:21):
general's headed here. There's you know, there's there's talk. But nominations will
close the week before what August fourth, Yeah, it used to be two
weeks in advance, Now it's oneweek in advance. I do know mile
history shows if you're a local horseto win the race, it sure shows
that you got to have a prettygood campaign going at Emerald Downs. At
least over the last ten to fifteenyears, we haven't had too many horses
(04:46):
that have been running here really wakeup in the mile. It's been the
horses that have performed well that runin that race. And that makes sense
because you've got to be a fit, sharp horse to run a mile.
Okay, Mile Day Sunday, Augusteleventh, will have of an all Steaks
pick four with the Washington, WashingtonOaks, Muckleshoot, Derby, Emerald Distaff
and the mile, and we havea railbird rally that morning. We have
(05:12):
well, let's start with this week. Breakfast at the Wire begins it's three
week run. This Saturday, thetwenty seventh of July, eight to ten
am right there on track level,right off the track Apron. You won't
be able to miss it. Eightto ten am. It's a free show.
Come on out. Justin Evans andKevin Krieger are going to be a
(05:32):
couple of guests of Dean Mazuka.So eight to ten am. Training on
the track going on and breakfast optionsthere Breakfast at the Wire. The first
of three consecutive Saturdays this Saturday,July twenty seventh, and it's Premio Esmarelda
weekend as well. Saturday and Sunday. We're going to have some big crowds.
(05:57):
The horse shows start at twelve thirtyand the horse shows on the track
are really spectacular. It's a greatfamily event with the dancing horses. And
there's going to be music and otherevents to honor and recognize the contributions of
the Hispanic community in Washington racing.And we're going to first race each day
(06:19):
is going to be just a littlebit later one forty five. First race
Saturday and Sunday Premio Esmerelda Weekend hereat Emerald Downs. Of course, the
Corgi Sunday was a couple of weeksago, and the Corgi Show will be
on ESPN two on Friday August secondat ten thirty pm. So the Emerald
(06:43):
Downs Corgi Day events on ESPN twoFriday August second, ten thirty pm.
Last week, Vince, the HollywoodHarbor Sprint Series started, and shoot,
it was drawn into two divisions,a lot of interests and a lot of
claims as well. Ye run Snappywinning the first division as the favorite and
(07:09):
then Mister Fireball slightly faster time inthe second division, so we both those
winners were claimed. Yeah, aswe're nine total horses out of the two
races, which kind of figured goingin as it isn't eight thousand dollars claiming
series except for the final leg whichwill be run under starter allowance conditions.
(07:30):
And in fact John Coonan who ownsMister Fireball or did own him, he
was claimed and also the breeders ourowner of the week. So I can
quickly go through those last week,Actually we didn't have a show last week,
so I will quickly run down thewinners from the previous week July twelfth
through fourteenth. That was Silvio amidorhe got a stakes win on tougher than
the rest. A lot of sweepsby trainers around here in stakes in July
(07:55):
twelfth through fourteen, blain Wright gettingArctic breeze home and the day before tougher
than the rest of the Irish day. He was a Trainer of the week.
Billy Speed Racing Stable had back toback wins on Saturday and Sunday,
including a horse you picked at fortyto one named forty Nugget. That's William
Greenstein out of Oregon. Congratulations tohim. The Washington Bread was mister Midas,
who's back in action this weekend.That's Todd Nicholas, Shelley Nicholas.
(08:18):
They bred that horse. Good jobthere. And the groom was Mrio Bonderas.
He worked for Vince Gibson and he'sin charge of a horse called Moonlight
and the Lion who was really improveda lot this year. And one of
the owners there is Joan Hutcheson,our former clocker here at Emerald Down,
So congratulations to that gang. Lastweek's winners at jockey Carlos Montalvo. We
(08:39):
mentioned Kevin Kraeger and Justin Evans.You know they could have easily been picked.
But Carlos, you know, threewinners and a steaks win on a
Loha Breeze is the jockey of theweek. Tom Wenzel sweeps both stakes.
He's the trainer of the week.We mentioned John coonan owner and breeder of
Mister Fireball. He had a nicepayday with that horse. And then the
(09:00):
wa bread got to go with Slusto his Whiz bred by the late Carl
Craig. In the groom of theweek, Christina Strickland. She works for
Justin Evans. Some of the horsesshe grooms surprisingly perfect. Who's been really
great at the meet, god Sendand the two year old Philly one thousand
miles. Wow, yeah, onethousand, one thousand miles part of our
(09:20):
training day video this particular Thursday,July twenty fifth. And speaking of steaks,
you know, Carlos and Jose Zaninotied for most steaks wins last year
at the meeting with four each,and they're both doing pretty well again.
Vince Carlos has two steaks wins,so does Silvio Amador and Carlo Lopez.
(09:43):
Carlos also has a couple of thirds. How about Jose Zanino, He got
his first Steaks win of the meetwith Loosed his whis. But he's been
in the money five out of sixand he's really turned into a pretty dependable
big race rider around here. Hehas actually a pretty slow year for Jose,
Yeah, and all that could turnaround with a win in the mile
and Yeah, Jose has really madequite a combination with Slews Tis Whiz and
(10:09):
not just that he's had come frombehind her. He used to ride Hollywood
Harbor and Obie Harbor and a coupleof the fastest horses around here. So
quite a career for Jose. Yeah, it's a great guy and it was
really an outstanding ride on Sunday.I mean, I guess his main decision
came about almost mid turn after thethree eighth pole. The horse was starting
to move. Actually, Tom Winzelis going to join us, and you'll
(10:31):
probably talk about the race, butthe rail did kind of open up for
him on the turn, so hestayed there and that worked out well.
If he didn't stay there, there'sno way he gets any part of the
win. And it was a groundsaving trip. And it's easy to tell
a guy to save ground, butyou know, you're you know, a
horse like Sleu's his Whiz. You'revulnerable to traffic, you know, around
(10:52):
the turn, but it opened upnicely and it was a great decision by
Jose and boy Armadora will talk aboutit. He looked home free, but
it took a remarkable rally Byles HisWhiz to get the dead heat fifth Emerald
Down Stakes victory for slews Ti Whiz. He's tied with Blazing Bella Blue among
active horses with those five steaks,wins and more. On the scene,
(11:18):
Charlie Essex spoke with him. Hescratched Blazing Bella Blue out of the Washington
State Legislators stakes. He said,you know, just she wasn't just absolutely
one hundred percent, nothing really toonegative to report, but I just she's
done so much, and you know, she's a six year old mayor now,
so he just excited not to runher in that particular race. Okay,
(11:41):
Well, let's see what else we'vegot going on here. The overall
claims at the meet, I don'tknow if you have figures, you keep
track of a lot of that stuff. And by the way, the news
and notes are updated, which Igo to every week for a lot of
great information. So there's that,but the claims, Yeah, we got
one hundred and seventy seven of themthrough about thirty one days, so we're
(12:05):
on a record pace over one pointthree million and claims money. And of
course, you know you analyze whythat is, well, a lot of
it is we just you know,the not as much breeding going on locally
as in the past, and peopleare looking for horses and and you can
kind of you know, if youclaim a five thousand dollars horse or a
(12:26):
twenty five hundred dollars horse, youcan turn around and make some money back
pretty fast with a win. Soit's uh, there's a lot of reasons
for it. And you know,you can bring in a guy like Justin
Evans the last couple of years,and he's got a lot of horses people
want to claim, and he doesa lot of claiming himself. So blain
right. We mentioned a few weeksago, you know, early in the
meat he had eleven horses claimed inlike the first fifteen days. And and
(12:50):
those guys are are not they're smarthorsemen. They know they're when they enter
a horse, their chances are prettygood they're going to lose one. So
the claiming is hot and heavy atat Emerald Downs, and Blaine's having an
outstanding season and he's still what elevenwins behind. I think it is just
thirty four to twenty three. ButBlane's clicking at thirty percent. You can't
(13:11):
do much better than that, soyou know, he's just not starting as
many and both guys are you know, you got to give them a's for
how they're doing at the meet,okay, and other things happening the racing
club, any update from them.We got one in on Sunday, Warns
Candy Man's and a five claimer goinga mile and like a real evenly matched
(13:35):
field there. I think this ispretty good racing this weekend, don't you
South Yasco. There's you know,there's some three to one and seven to
two morning line horses, and there'sthere's like three or four races where top
to bottom, no one would surpriseyou if they won. Where the you
know, there's a couple of raceswhere there's not going to be no horse
(13:56):
going off at double digits, soit's it's going to be competitive. We
should also mention we got some quarterhorse racing on Sunday. The first and
second races are trials. For theJohn Deere Juvenile Challenge, which will be
run on August twenty fifth. There'sfifteen total horses and two heats. The
ten fastest out of those two moveon to the final. Twelve horses entered
(14:20):
the trials for the Bank of AmericaEmerald Downs Championship Challenge, that's the forty
thousand dollars race with twelve nominated.They we do have twelve that can run,
so they all automatically. All thoseones that were entered advance to the
finals on August twenty fifth at fourhundred and forty yards, and then on
(14:41):
top of that, we have aneight hundred and seventy yard race on Sunday,
mixed mixed race between quarterhorses and thoroughbreds. With capital Expense is going to
be favored in that race. Andif you look at the horses he beat
at Phoenix at eight hundred and seventyyard races this year, it's extremely impressive.
(15:01):
The more research you do, themore impressive it got. And he's
eight to five. He might evengo lower. The only bugaboo with him,
and we've talked about it before,is this is not his favorite racetrack
and there is a horse like CodeCharlie in there. That's got a tremendous
amount of early lick too, butwe'll see. I mean as someone's going
(15:22):
to have to run really, reallywell to beat him. There's a horse
Alabama Hills who people have seen runaround here the last couple of years.
He's never run eight seventy, buthe's probably the best quarter horse in the
race. So fun matchup there tooin the eight hundred and seventy yard race.
Yeah, Code Charlie and Capital Expensein eight seventy. I think that's
got a nickname something like around theHook or so around the hook, yeah,
(15:45):
because in most quarter horse races youdo not race around the turn,
so maybe that's where that is derivativeof. But we will see that.
So the first three races on Sunday, and it is Festa Premium Morale today,
so it's kind of appropriate because ifyou follow couarter horse racing in the
United States, the tremendous Hispanic influencein those events around the country, so
(16:10):
that will be a little different,but it's a change of pace is never
a bad thing. Yeah, yeah, Well, our fans are used to
quarter horse action every year. Okay, Well, stakes races around the country,
del Mar and Saratoga in action.Of course, Saratoga Race is Wednesday
through Sunday. Del Mar is Thursdaythrough Sunday, and they each track has
(16:33):
a stakes race every day this week, and I think that's pretty common for
many weeks. So Thursday through Sundayfor del Mar and Saratoga five days a
week, and of course our simulcastarea up on the fifth floor is opened
seven days a week. See anythingelse. Jockey Race. Alex Cruz has
(16:57):
maintained a pretty good lead, butso many of these other guys are having
good seasons. You know, CarloLopez, We know he's got a lot
of second place finishes, but nowhe's emerged with two stakes wins fairly recently.
Luis Reyes is riding well, andyou mentioned the stats on Kevin Krieger.
Boy, could he win the titlethis year now that he's riding for
(17:18):
Justin Evans. I don't think so, because he's got you know, we
got twenty four days left and he'sfourteen behind. It's possible, you know.
But the thing with Alex is he'sso steady, yeah that you know,
even when he has kind of anoff week, he still gets two
or three wins and he's such acompetitor that I would be surprised. But
(17:41):
you know, a couple more weekslike that and you know, maybe he
gets gets into the fray. ButAlex is a pretty pretty strong bet to
make it five in a row.I would agree with that. It would
be a big upset at this point. As driven as Alex Cruz is,
and just again he is, thisis his fit season here and the four
(18:02):
previous he has won the title.Tremendous feet for young Alex Cruz looking to
add another Emerald Downs Jockey title tohis resume. Yeah, we'll talk a
little bit about our feature races inthe selection segment segment three, but we'll
take a short break and we'll comeback with trainer Tom Wenzel here on horse
(18:25):
racing Northwest Muchos. It doesn't matterif you love craps, blackjack machines or
dining on the finest Asian, Americanand Salish cuisines. It doesn't matter what
you do or where you're coming fromus. What you do is all at
Muckleshoe, an easy drive from whereveryou are, all roads lead to Muckleshoe.
(18:55):
Mucosuit, the Loja Breeze maintains theadvantage in deep stretch and she has
opened up a half dozen now AlohaBreeze racing past the final sixteenth have left
the rest in the dust. It'sa Looja Breeze. A low Haw Breeze
(19:18):
was spectacular on Sunday at Emerald Downs, winning the Washington State Legislator's Stakes by
a stakes record six and three quarterslengths. And that was her fourth Emerald
Down Stakes victory. And Vince,she's won three steaks. She's won a
steak each year of racing. Nowat six and a half furlongs, she
(19:41):
can motor fast on those longer sprints. Yeah, she went one point fifteen
and those who follow the buyers,she got a career high seventy seven.
You mentioned the sixty three quarter lengths, well, the record she broke with
Kiki Soil Blue, also trained byTom, also owned by the tadaros So.
Tom has had a lot of goodfortune both the governors and the Washington
State Legislators. In fact, he'swon each race the last three years running.
(20:04):
Yeah, tremendous And that's our guestsright now in segment two of Horse
Racing Northwest, Welcome Tom wins aHi Tom, welcome to be here,
thanks for being here, and heswept both stakes last weekend Vince, and
after last year winning seven of seventeenstarts in stakes races, he is in
(20:26):
second place all time at Emerald Downs, fifty nine for Tom, fifty eight
for Blaine Wright. And I gotto think both those guys will be bearing
down on Doris Harwood's sixty seven herein the next couple of years. And
of course the real exciting race Sundayonly the third dead heat and the stakes
race in Emerald Downs history. Assleused his whiz flying up the rail catches
(20:48):
Arma to Oro, the photo can'tsplit him. Tom, Where did you
watch the race and what was yourinitial thought? Did you think you got
up? I guess getting up.I actually watched the slow ma I think
it was twice they they showed it, kind of leading up to them posting
the dead heat, and I continueone thing I've watched. I watched a
lot of race this year. Andif I think it's a dead heat on
(21:11):
the slow moll, the outside horsealways has a little bit of an advantage,
and so I I thought my noseon the slow mall was in front
with slow, and so I hadkind of felt we didn't lose it for
sure, but I thought I eitherwon it or it was a dead heat.
That's because it was my opinion.It's hard to call a dead heat,
(21:33):
it is and it was a perfectbob I thought too. For his
w Yeah, down right on thewire and another great ride by Jose Zannino.
You run into a razor sharp urmaoral. But wow, to keep
a horse like that going and winningthree straight years. Now you're set up
for another run at the Long Acresmile. I gotta think that's the that's
the hope you always. Luckily wegot a early prep in the mud early
(21:56):
this year and then uh run secondin the first and he was sharpening the
Governor's again, So I h Ido Uh. I'm very happy with the
where the horse is leading into themile of this this year. Tom's always
talked about what a hard trying horsehe is, loosed his whiz and yeah,
you can just see that, youknow his his drive, talk about
(22:19):
Jose riding him, And what yourthoughts were is the race unfolded there?
Well, the I thought the horsewas was moving pretty good already at the
three ags you could see him pickingup ground and the speed. Papa was
loose this time for a little while, and the other other horses were chasing
him. So you know sometimes whenPapa gets loose, he does carry on
(22:41):
pretty good. Uh. But theother horses got to him, and I
could see my horse coming. Iknew we had a shot, and I
never This is the one horse younever want to give up. I mean,
if it looks a little hopeless atthe eighth ball, if he's if
he's quite a few back, hecan make up address. So he's just
a fun horse. I knowunt therun speed, he's try as I ever
(23:03):
had. Yeah, I know Slew'screw racing. It bears repeating that he
came on the scene was late inthe twenty twenty one meet, and you
look at that race he ran inin a maiden fifteen. He barely picks
up his feet and you would havenever dreamed that that horse would be a
long acre's mile prospect. And youknow, he's the kind of horse Joe
and I always talk about a secondtime starter that got a little experienced the
(23:26):
year before, and then he justin the first race in twenty twenty two,
he just tipped his hand and thatwould have been one excuse me twenty
one. You had to just knowthat this was a pretty good horse at
that point. We were so youknow, as a two year old,
he was very awkward and immature andworked you know, kind of average.
The light bulb definitely was not onwhen he was a young horse. And
(23:48):
I actually let him over there atthe end of the meet just very well
prepared. We were just you know, he was okay enough to start in
a he run really poorly. Imean we might have got beat twenty langs
rom Or that day the first timeI run him, and I didn't think
he'd run that bad that day,but he did, and so they're bringing
him back. Heking this horse runand he worked, you know, leading
(24:12):
in a three year old year.He worked pretty good leading up to the
race, not lights out, butthe last time I worked him out of
the gate before we ran him,he finished pretty well. And so he
had some pretty middle of the roadworkouts that day leading up to that first
race. So he went off asa little bit of a price. And
I have to admit I was Ithink he made the lead that day,
(24:33):
yeah, And I was kind ofI was surprised even myself that he made
the lead because I you know,I knew he could finish, but the
fact that he it was fifteen,so you know, he caught a group.
Maybe there wasn't a lot of speedthat day, but that was the
surprise. Not that he ran well, but the front end did surprise me
that day when he broke his maiden, Yeah it and the career just kept
(24:55):
going up. He was second inthe Muckleshoot Derby that year and won a
couple nice other races. And thatwas that was kind of the race when
he ran a I think it wasthird, wasn't it? Was it?
Third? Yeah? Okay, heran a real good closing third into a
pace that wasn't that blistering or somethingthat day? And I and and that
was it might have been his firstroute too. I think maybe I got
(25:15):
another one before that, But thatwas the race I said, this horse
is going to be you know thefact that he can go long and close
like that, uh yeah, topexecutive Coastal kid and loosed his with a
roaring third. And yeah, andin the wrestling group was quite a ways
back from him from slew that day. So that was the the race that
kind of hit this, you know, this horse is pretty good. Yeah,
(25:38):
and uh, you know, JoseZannino has just had a couple of
really fine rides on him. Thingsworked out on Sunday, you know,
off the pace on the inside andthen opened up for him. But uh,
Jose's prowess and steaks is working well. I mean, he's riding your
horses a lot, which is atribute to you as well. But that's
(25:59):
quite a combination. And yeah,slew'st his whiz in really lofty company.
When you win a stake race threeyears in a row, which he has
done in the Governor's Andy and Boldof course won four. He won three
in a row ninety nine to twothousand and one, then he won again
as an eight year old and three. But nonetheless, he's he's moving right
(26:22):
up there as one of the tophorses in Emerald Down's history. He really
is. And one of the thingsthat really proves his greatness to me is
the style he does it. Youknow, kind of like a striker PhD
and having to pass horses and you'revulnerable to paces and all these things that
can you know, topple a horse, but he he just shows up every
(26:44):
time with that just really exciting stretchrun and would you think at the wire,
I honestly didn't have one opinion theother once I saw the slow mo,
like Tom said, I was,I wrote down. I told Ed
Cornerera does the charts, I gothis list. His wis did get the
perfect bob. Yeah, so Iwas kind of surprised with the dead heat
then, but you know, hesaw the photo. It either way,
(27:04):
they both ran great, and Ithought it was a just a just outcome.
Oh yeah, I thought, uh, I thought armored or you know,
he's winning, he's winning, he'swinning, oh you know, and
then whoa, yeah, I thoughthe didn't get beat armor to or.
But wait a minute, you know. And then as Tom said, you
(27:26):
know, whatever, the illusion isthat the outside horse seems like it's worth
a few inches of an advantage forsome reason on the actual on the camera
and camera. Yeah that's but yeah, it is to get back to that,
he's just such an exciting horse.And I know, Tom, you
want another shot at five star General. You beat him in twenty twenty two,
and last year things just your horseran a good race, of course,
(27:48):
and the figures were fine, butit just never really looked like his
day that day when I watched therace, you know, yeah, he
struggled with the racetrack that day alittle bit himself. It was a little
bit of a deeper racetrack that dayfor some you know reason then. And
I think horse like five Star General, those horses are are used to running
(28:11):
on a deeper racetrack almost back inthe Midwest a lot. And I think
he relished it and run a bigrace. And you know, Granting,
those guys had him sharp and lookslike they got him sharp again this year
as well. And so he's he'sgoing to be a very very tough opponent.
Yeah, he's he's going good.I think, didn't he just get
tie his career high buyer speed figureout a ninety seven? Yeah, but
(28:37):
I'm looking forward to that showdown becausethey've each got a first and a third
the last two years. And what'sneat and racing You don't see that too
often anymore where, you know,no handicap horses stay around and keep firing
bullets like these two guys are doing. It's just it's pretty neat and pretty
special. And you know, wetalk about a lot, but Carl Craig
bred this horse and we all knowhow fun it would have been for to
(29:00):
be in a part of this wholedeal. Oh yeah, he was.
I mean if he was, ifhe was down here on earth, he
would be out of his uh,out of his mind as happy. He'd
still be talking at the banquet rightnow about that mile. He could get
happy, which is great about him. Uh slew uh tell us how he
comes out of his races generally?Does he need? I mean, he's
(29:22):
such a hard trier, but mostof the time it's always pretty good.
And you know this one especially,you look like you come out of it
as good. He was kind ofbouncing around today, so he's I will
send him back to jog tomorrow already. And sometimes it depends on how many
days off all give hours after arace, just kind of how they're doing.
But he's going to job tomorrow,so he looks like he come out
(29:44):
in good shape. And keep myfingers crossed, and three weeks down the
road, we'll try it again.What about the Philly Aloha breeze? You
did try to stretch her out lastyear in the oaks? Would you look
at the distaff with her? We'llconsider it. I mean, we're this
Philly is probably a sprinter, tobe real honest about it. She's built
like that. We did try itlast year. We had some circumstances in
(30:07):
that day that we run her thatdidn't work out for her. But she
was pushed into some really fast fractionslast year. I mean for the race,
the way the race truck was thatday, as far as depth,
and you know, it wasn't alot of things weren't weren't in her wheelhouse
that day. I mean, she'sprobably built for realistically, seven furlogs are
(30:29):
under but if she's the best horse, sometimes sometimes you can stretch one out.
Yeah, I mean you had tobe pretty confident with her. I
mean, not knowing her training leadingup. I'm assuming everything was good because
you ran her, but then nothaving a super fast horse like Miss Dynamic
(30:52):
in there and knowing your your mayoragecapabilities to go to the front, you
had to be confident with her.Well. We were obviously the speed.
She was the speed of the race, and we knew she would be.
You probably have a couple of thema couple of lengths on the group group
and that for you know, atrue speed horse is very helpful, even
if they're running fast and six anda half is one of those distance where
(31:15):
not everybody's gunning for their life rightout of the gate, because it's almost
like a long sprint here. Andif you watch Carlos in the race,
he just kind of let her bebroke well, but he didn't absolutely gun
her. He kind of let hernaturally run into the pace. And he
did the same thing in the lastyear six and a half, which if
(31:36):
you can kind of do something likethat without having to be pushed and get
away with some modest fractions, especiallythe first quarter, it you know,
usually if you got a good horse, they'll stick around with that type of
scenario. And I, you know, did I think she'd do what she
did and run them totally off theirfeet? I mean I was hoping,
(31:59):
but I uh, you know,she's just a talented speed horse and she
gets a comfortable lead. She's she'svery dangerous and talented. And by the
way, that's George Todarow. That'shis fourteenth stakes winning down. He's getting
up there in total stakes wins.And George and Jane were out to watch
(32:20):
their nice horse run. Yeah,they were. That's great. When when
when they come out and George,uh, it's always fun. We can
win a big race when George ishere because he really enjoys it. Well,
he just has been tremendous for horseracing. I mean all those years
with Jerry Hollendorffer and and uh alwayssupported us when he could, you know,
(32:42):
yeah, sent you some horses overthe years and a lot of a
lot of different years. But yeah, really easy to root for for that
guy too. And so we've onlyhad two two year old steaks yet and
Tom has won the Gottstein record threeconsecutive years. Uh, what about your
two year olds this year? Tom, Well, we start We've started two
(33:02):
cults so far, a second anda fourth. Bode's offer on a closing
second in the first stake here thisyear, which the uh which uh Jack
Rutz horse one for plain right?Yeah, and run a good race.
So this horse was learning a littlebit, uh at five and a half
(33:25):
and he's kind of built for moredistance, that horse. So, but
there's a couple others down there inthe barn I think that are that got
in talent that I'm hoping, youknow, maybe we can get a couple
more in the Gottstein at the endof the year. Two we'll see it.
Always depends on the horses and howthey're doing. But but there's a
(33:47):
there's a few chances, so justgoing leading up to that. And you
know, Minor League only had twostarts going into the Gottstein last year.
Yeah, and I don't think's logichad too many more than that. Lloyd
had a few more because it tookhim about four races the break was made
and we had run him in acouple of maiden races. Then we tried
(34:07):
him in a stake and he hada tough go trip wise, and then
we took the blinkers back off himand he finally broke his maiden. So
I think he had five starts atleast leading to the god scene, so
he was well prepared as far asrace numbers. So, but it's always
beneficial if you can get more thanone race going in the godscene. I've
seen a number of Gottsteen horses thatwere very talented but only had one race,
(34:31):
and that's not an easy to pulloff. As for a young horse
off of just one race. Youmentioned Minor League and he had his four
race win streak snapped in the IrishDay a couple of weekends ago, kind
of a funny race there because itwas scratched down to four and then tougher
than the rest. Ran a nicerace, but he hit he looked on
(34:52):
paper to have quite a serious paceadvantage. Wondering how your horse come out
of the race there, Yeah,Minor League come out of the race decent
for for us. He uh hada little bit of trouble with him out
of the last race, but uh, he he's okay. And but he
was just one of those races whereyou know, the track, if I
(35:13):
remember right, the track was thespeed horses were having having their way that
weekend, and and they're just youknow, Minors is truly not a speed
horse. He can he can makea move in a race pretty quickly,
and he did that on the backsidethat day, but it just wasn't enough.
And then he kind of went wideand flattened out on me a little
bit. And uh, it's youknow, it's just some circumstances probably with
(35:37):
the track and the PA scenario thatday got him, got him a little
bit. But and you know,in the end we just got out run
as well. So you you youknow, it's hard to it's hard to
win them all. It's hard towin them all. Tom certainly wins his
share. Uh, and you knowit's pretty good rivalry for us media types
(35:57):
keeping track of stuff. Uh.Blaine right and Tom wins each with three
steaks wins this year and just wonaway from each other. Tom was one
went ahead career wise in that pursuitof the number one spot which they are
assaulting the last several years. Boy, and Tom's got two long acres mile
winds as well, and it's gota pretty live horse for August eleventh.
(36:21):
So yeah, just some great stufffor your barn last week. And also
your Curtis High school classmates were thereon Sunday and that was a pretty good
day for them to invite them out. It was fun. We saw quite
a few of the old classmates overthe weekend and the days leading up and
a few of them were able tocome out Sunday, so that was fun
(36:42):
they got to I was hoping wecould at least win one that day so
to get a few of them inthe winter circle. So that was fantastic.
Yeah, that was just just aheck of a horse race, especially
you know the Governor's being a deadheat and loosed his wiz, just making
his move and out running so manygood sprinters again and we know he can
go two turns and yeah, soTom, great stuff. We'll be seeing
(37:07):
more two year olds from him.He didn't name too many of them,
so we're gonna have to handicap onour own there. We'll figure it out.
We'll try and figure it out.But thanks Tom, and really good
luck the rest of the season.Thank you guys. Tom Wenzel joining us
on horse Racing Northwest. We'll takea time out and come back with our
third and final segment here on thepodcast. It doesn't matter if you love
(37:36):
craps, blackjack machines or dining onthe finest Asian, American and Salish cuisines.
It doesn't matter what you do orwhere you're coming from. What you
do is all at Muckleshoe, aneasy drive from wherever you are. All
roads lead to Muckleshoe. Horse RacingNorthwest, our third and final segment on
(38:07):
this show. Thanks once again totrainer Tom Wenzel and just a really successful
weekend for him with loosed his wiswinning his third straight Governors in dead heat
fashion and a low haw breeze backin the stakes winners circle at Emerald Downs.
Just unfortunately passing to relate from ourindustry. Bruce Samuels passed away recently
(38:34):
at the age of seventy eight.Bruce trained here in our first few seasons.
He was kind of associated with BradVarner there and you know, in
talking with John White, John dida story on Turbulator. Vince John,
I'm shocked he did a story onTurbulator and Bruce Samuels was Tom Crawford's groom,
(38:58):
one of his grooms back when Turbulatorwas a two year old in nineteen
sixty seven and the horse got reallysick and John did the research. Bruce
called called Tom Crawford right away.I guess he was sweating profusely. The
horse was Turbulator, and the vetcame and they had a number of horses
pass away from a very serious virusthat summer at playfair Well. Bruce later
(39:24):
trained Turbulator in his final season onthe track. Of course, Tom Crawford
was the trainer and owner, andTom did pass away in nineteen seventy one.
Leonard Roberts trained in seventy two andthree, and Bruce Samuel's trained Turbulator
in nineteen seventy four. He wasgood friends with Larry Pearce and Brad Taylor
(39:46):
as well, and Bruce relocated andYakamah was married there and just a real
mild mannered guy, but according tomany a really solid horsemen. So our
condolence is there to his family.Bruce Samuels passes away at age seventy eight.
(40:07):
Sport shorts My sports short is EmeraldDowns. I noticed Coastal Jazz and
Coastal Kid are in the same raceon Saturday, and I thought, shoot,
did those horses run against each other? Well, they have not often.
They're both six year old Washington breads. They're both by Coastguard, but
(40:29):
a little different routes. Coastal Kidsfirst career start was on September ninth,
twenty twenty. He did win thatrace, of course, Jeff Metz was
his trainer and the cars owned him, and Coastal Jazz was in that race
that Coastal Kid won on September ninth, twenty twenty. It was Coastal Jazz's
(40:51):
fourth career start. He finished sixthin there, so they ran there then.
It wasn't again until last summer inthe Budweiser Stakes here at Emerald Downs.
Coastal Kid was fifth behind our winnerthat was bridled up to the bar.
Yeah, and Coastal Jazz was twelfthin that race. So Coastal Kid
Coastal Jazz have run against each othertwice. They're going to do it again
(41:12):
on Saturday. In our feature race, Coastal Kid got the better of his
brother so to speak, by Coastguardsame age and Coast Guard doing well in
the sire standings. Again, Ithink he's second, Vince. You tell
he those second to harbor the goldright now, maybe it is twelve to
eleven, so that's up for grabsas we go through the second half of
(41:36):
the meat Well. By now everyoneknows the Seattle Mariners are really on the
skids. In fact, they've blowna ten game lead in record time,
I think in twenty four days,and a lot of people kind of saw
it coming when once again during thelast off season and ownership kind of limited
the amount of flexibility they were goingto have with payroll, and they're pretty
(41:59):
much wasting historical starting rotation they haveand I think at some point, you
know, maybe they need to understandthat the taxpayer is paid and built for
that stadium, not the ball club, the people, and it doesn't seem
like that has ever given a consideration, and the chice prices they charge for
food and drink and tickets and allthat. I just think the fans deserve
(42:22):
a little bit better. That's myopinion. I know a lot of people
feel the same way right now,and it's not reactionary. And you could
kind of see it coming in theoff season. Win again, they sign
these guys who have had maybe onedecent year in their career and kind of
hope for the best, and thebottom has just falling out. They can't
(42:42):
score, they can't hit. They'reon pace for records amounts of strikeouts,
the lowest batting average since nineteen ten. I'm reading and wow, and miraculously
they're still, you know, verymuch in a pennant race. So we'll
see what they do, you know, coming up here the trade deadline in
four days. But uh, Ijust think sometimes you know, you you
get what you pay for in uh, in sports and all along. You
(43:08):
know, their starting pitching has beenso good the last couple of years,
unbelievably did yeah, and then thisyear the ten game lead, Uh,
you'd think that can carry you through. Heck, we can win some of
these two to one games and threeto one and three to two games.
But the hitting has just been sobad. It's so bad. And then
a couple of years ago they didwin a lot of one run games,
(43:30):
you know, they were actually outscoredone year and and and they had finished
many games over five hundred. Soit'll be interesting to see how they finish
out. But now with Coculio Rodriguezand JP Crawford, you know, out
indefinitely. It's just it's, uh, it's kind of like there's no relief
in sight for this team. Andand uh, it'll be it'll be interesting
(43:51):
to watch. It's poor timing becausethe Seahawks training camp just opened, and
we know, let's face it,you know, uh, Seattle is pretty
big on its football between the Huskiesand the Seahawks. So we'll see what
happens down the stretch. And Ifelt obligated to do that since Bill Downs,
who was here the last couple ofyears, would always be given our
weekly update on the Mariners. Soyes he did, and I know you'd
(44:15):
speak with their text Bill now.And then he's is he still a is
he still a fan? Oh?Yeah, okay, yeah, he's singing
in there kind of been lamenting thethe last few weeks, as many Mariners
fans have been, so it wouldmake for a heck of a story if
they somehow came back and yeah,did did great down the stretch, but
(44:37):
they can't get much lower than gettingswept by the Angels. Well, not
only that, they lost three straightto him the prior week, you know
the four game series down there.They won the first game and then lost
the last three there, So it'sthey've lost eight out of nine out about
that, Yeah, I think it'sanyhow, you could go on and on
with it, but it's time forsomeone on that team to start hitting the
(44:58):
ball. Okay, Hey, there'ssome sports shorts selections. We've got Friday,
Saturday and Sunday racing coming up.The sixth race on Friday night is
well, it's a starter allowance atsix and a half furlongs with six horses
doing pretty well. I did gowith number three, meant for me,
Kevin Krigger for Justin Evans. Ididn't see the morning line yet, but
(45:22):
that horse has a little bit ofspeed and there's just so many stalkers and
closers other than the rest of thehorses, so you probably had him.
He's one of the ones for sure. Yeah, meant for me has had
four starts at the meeting. Hehasn't won. He's coming off two routes,
but he has shown speed in sprintseveral times. He has won at
(45:43):
six and a half in his career. I'm going to go with the three
horse in there. It meant forme. And if you've been on the
Evans Krigger bandwagon here lately, youare scoring at an incredible rate. I
think it's close to ten for thirteenin the last you know, so many,
but you mentioned all the multiple windows. Yeah, they're nineteen for forty
(46:05):
three for the for the meat,for the meat, which is tremendous,
that's well over forty percent. Andyou know, be honest, there is
a lot of favorites in there,but it's still and those rides Kevin are
putting up or he's got the horseof the right spot every time. So
it's really worked out well for JustinEvans and Kevin Krieger, who of course
was no stranger at Emerald Down's comingback here this year. I just noticed
(46:30):
Meant for me is nine to fiveon the morning. Okay, yeah,
makes sense, Okay, well,we've got a good feature race on Saturday.
It's a mile and seventy yards optionalclaimer, and Surprisingly Perfect is in
there. Gosh, it might turnit into a chalk eater here, because
(46:50):
I know he's got to be thefavorite in there with his three spectacular wins.
Absolutely, but yeah he is.He's like skip a Way, you
know. And the horse. Ithink he's got twenty career wins now,
and that said, he's probably incareer four. Yes, I mean another
sharp win and who knows, maybethey've come back in two weeks. In
(47:14):
the mile, he's got four winsthis year. He won at Well,
he won in December at Zea Park, then he won at Sunland in January,
and of course three wins at EmeraldDowns. And I say skip Away
because skip Away as a three yearold was a really good three year old.
I mean he was one of theones, but he usually came from
off the pace even closed. Butthen age four, he just was so
(47:36):
good they just let him go,I mean run, nobody could beat him.
He had a huge series of successat ages four and five. Surprisingly
Perfect is kind of like that rightnow. Just let him go at Emerald
Downs and he is just crushing hisfoes, so he's going to be tough
to beat. You'll probably see somelong acres mile nominees out of that eighth
(47:59):
race on Saturday. You're the CauseDirt Road, red gen Tong sentat Thunder
coming off a great win. Sakielis a claim just one at Churchill Downs
in late June for Craig Perrinboom wholikes to participate in the mile falsely Cues
coming off a good route and Elalto Ombre. So that's a really good
(48:20):
race. In fact, a coupleof those were entered last week in the
Governor's and came out of that raceto go in this race. Another interesting
race I thought on this Sunday isan allowance race for three year olds going
as Race seven were power Rised,who had that huge maiden win and then
finished second in the Auburn comes backunder allowance conditions against a pretty good feel.
(48:40):
Blaine Wright has spinning pistols and runedoffedin their Dynamics Secret who ran pretty
good on July third Whiskey Jack andthen a comebacking well imagine that, and
Nightline coming off a nice maiden score. So that's kind of an interesting twenty
five thousand dollars allowance for three yearolds with possible stakes implications down the road.
(49:01):
Now, that's Sunday seventh and theninth. On Sunday is the race
with Coastal Jazz and Coastal Kid meetingfor the third time, but executive chefs
in there Langston Road smiling goodbye andcool popagee so plenty of speed. I'm
going to give Coastal Kid the nod. He's beaten Coastal Jazz both times he's
(49:22):
run against him. This is differentsituation because Coastal Jazz is coming off a
really awesome sprint win there on thefourteenth two weeks ago. He just destroyed
that feed. That was a goodfield. He put away like nothing.
So and I thought, I'm withyou. I thought Coastal Kid ran a
(49:42):
little better than looked in the stakesrace. And this is a little dropping
class. And you know, thehorse already has a nice win at the
meet, and had a big winat Phoenix earlier in the year, and
he could have won the Gottstein Harea few years ago. But he's been
pretty good throughout his career and itwouldn't surprise me that much to see him
bounce back either. What'd you makehim three to one, seven to two
(50:04):
six hors field? Yeah, Ithink one. Let's get four to one
in a sex hors field. Ilike it. Okay, I'm gonna give
him the nod in there, allright. That brings us to trivia.
Last week or two weeks ago,we had of phillies and mayors and the
Washington Thoroughbred Hall of Fame. Who'sthe only one to race in the Long
Acres Mile? Well? C J. Knigg, who is a popular trivia
(50:29):
player. He was at Emerald Downsthe day of the ceremony when Smoggy Do
was inducted, so he he knowsher. He heard the verbiage and the
fact that she did run in theLong Acres Mile twice and one time ran
pretty well. Of course, shewon the Long Acres Derby as a three
year old over George Royal and beatthe boys over ten times in her career.
(50:53):
Smoggy Do the only Washington Thoroughbred Hallof Fame member of the male variety
who was run in the Long AcresMile. CJ got that. Andy had
a good submission of Irene's Angel,who was a mile winner. Okay,
our new question, Well, Wejust had our third dead heat and an
(51:14):
Emerald Down stakes race in track history, going back to the long Acre era.
What was the most recent dead heatin a steaks race at Longacre?
Send your answers to trivia at emeralddownsdot com thanks to our guest Tom Wenzel.
No stakes races this week, butthe following week couple of juvenile steaks
(51:37):
and I think we should mention anice birthday today. This is Thursday for
Blaine Wright, who was celebrating abit of a milestone today. So congratulations
to Blaine. You bet happy birthday, Blaine, tremendous run of success here
at Emerald Downs. Thanks for listeningto horse Racing Northwest.
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